Behind the Digital LensMusings of an Amateur Photographer

30th Oct, 2013 When a bad photo looks good

I have finally come to believe that not every photo has to be perfect, sharp, completely well framed, etc.  Sometimes the “misses” can turn out quite interesting.

I went to a Marina over the weekend, late in the afternoon, to take photos of the ducks there.  Lots of ducks, lots of people feeding ducks, lots of duck photos.  Well, not really lots of photos.  It was getting dark and I don’t really care for flash photography; I do it when needed.  But, anyway……

For the most part I don’t really look at my playback screen, although sometimes I do because I know that a photo I have just taken has turned out badly and I will delete it, especially if I have little idea of what it was because of blur.  That day was no different.

So, I got home, uploaded the photos to my external hard drive, and started going through them.  And there it was.  A bad photo that was actually cool looking.  I had tried to take a closeup of one of the mallard’s head, but just as I hit the shutter button, he turned his bill down.  The result looks a bit psychedelic but I think it turned out rather interesting.

What I learned is that you should always take a second look at some of the photos you are thinking of deleting.  They could actually be really neat and give you ideas about other “bad” photos and you don’t necessarily need to edit them, either.